DIMINISHED THOUGHT

The Word for the Day is: ontology

Used in a Sentence:
It's really hard for me to care about the ontology of networks.

_________

Here's a nifty little quote from some of my reading:

"Packet switching is the mechanism by which digital bits, sent encoded with metainformation about the "file" to which they belong, where they are going, and where they fit in the final assembly, are routed across the Internet in a potential variety of paths, transparently to the user. It is often reported that one of the motivations to build a packet switching network was for military emergency purposes. In case of a nuclear attack taking down one node from the network, packets would reroute across other nodes, thereby preserving lines of communication (Rheingold, 1993). It is ironic in that context that on the day the U.S. actually was attacked - September 11, 2001 - the Internet was clogged and unresponsive to many of us beyond and utility (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2001). So many users tried to get information about the terrorist attacks and to see the multimedia views of the World Trade Center that the Internet system built to withstand attack turned out to be a victim of its own success." (pg. 646)

Walther, J. B., Gay, G., & Hancock J. T. (2005). How do communication and technology researchers study the internet?. Journal of Communication,632-657.